A press release appearing on the Internet at http://home.netscape.com/flash1/newsref/pr/newsrelease480.html describes an online service that brings together software, content and community resources which is intended to serve professionals wishing to easily access and personalize online business resources from a single central location.
The system described includes:
a. customizable services that bring business users easy, central access to news and information and leverage the features of Netscape Communicator, PA0 b. services which enable communication and collaboration between professionals and business, and PA0 c. services that make it easy for users to easily update and maintain the leading-edge software they need to take full advantage of the Internet and Intranets.
The system includes Concentric's Netscape Virtual Office and software.net's Netscape Software Depot.
BBS (bulletin board service) is an almost extinct service which at one time, before the Internet became prevalent, was very useful for computer users with a common interest. The service was provided modem-to-modem communication, using which users would call up a BBS provider, browse through information at the BBS site and download portions of that information through modem. If a BBS service had more than one telephone line, it was possible for subscribers to chat with one another.
The disclosures of all publications mentioned in the specification and of the publications cited therein are hereby incorporated by reference.